The Bang Bang Club

The war rages on in the final days of apartheid in South Africa. "The Bang Bang Club" is a group of four, young, fearless photographers who drove in head first into the racial fighting. Why they did such a thing is certainly in question. At first, I would chalk it up to the male-driven need for action. Other reasons will be there, but even they question it after awhile.

Writer and director Steven Silver is an established documentarian and this marks his transition into something a little more accessible. This certainly is. It's the type of recent historical story that I want to know more about. We only see the conflicts that are going on in South Africa through the lenses of these young men. The conflicts that take center stage are the internal ones between the good of documenting the violence versus doing something about it. Interestingly, it's when two of them win the Pulitzer Prize that their moral fibre is called into question.

As fearless as the protagonists are, the filmmakers seemed to be a bit more timid. Although the violence is there in full view, it lacked most of the emotional impact it should have had. Unfortunately, this is the reason for the low critics' rating. By the end you will be moved by the story, but you could have been moved all along.

I found that it was a great point of view to an interesting time. It was shot on location and achieved a great look for an independent film with the fraction of a Hollywood budget. "The Bang Bang Club" is a good movie, a great story, and it's worth experiencing.

I avoided this film for a long time because it was set in South Africa and I thought it was going to be political. Instead it is more about the combat photographers that live and work in these zones, witnesses to all kinds of nasty things, but tasked with observing and taking pictures only.

The film has a good cast, but considering it is based on a book written by two of the photographers - one played by Ryan Phillippe, it is strange that the most visible character is Taylor Kitsch's, who steals the show with his acting.

The direction and writing of the film were a little bland, though, less ambitious than the subject of the movie. I wonder if it was intentional, as to show more of the perspective of the original book. Even so, we start with these musketeers of the camera, but we never understand why they got to doing what they're doing and so most of the time we couldn't care less what happens to them.

The change comes at the end, when two of the group die and we are faced with the pain of their friends and loved ones, but it comes too late and on the background of Black people finding their children murdered and having to let photographers in to take account. It felt artificial and condescending, so that is why I rated this film merely average. Otherwise, an interesting story and word watching.

One thing intrigued me: from the few IMDb comments for this film, there is none from South Africa, so they must have done something wrong with the movie.

Kevin Carter's Pulitzer prize winning photograph is one of those images that gets burned into the back of your mind. It haunts you long after you see it. I saw this photo of the young Sudanese girl, about 10 years after it was taken, and it still fills me with sorrow. It makes you wonder what happened to the poor girl. It makes you question how the world can have both a massive obesity epidemic, and massive global starvation at the same time. It isn't something you can easily forget, and it's the type of image photo journalists spend an entire career searching for.

In this multi-biography, director Steven Silver tells the story of four friends, all combat photographers in the mid 1990's before the fall of the Apartheid. They tell the story of the Zulu and their tribal warfare all the while photographing the constant death, starvation, and violence that surrounds them, all the while building their camaraderie and forming the Bang Bang Club.

It's a very well written film and it brings up many issues. Most notably the hypocrisy of the situation, is that these journalists are living a life of comparative wealth and debauchery in this time of strife, and at the same time trying to make a name for themselves by taking photos focused on the very visceral suffering of others. Where the film really shines is in the background and the violence therein. I was quite impressed with the sheer number of extras for most of the fighting scenes. There are a lot of graphic sequences of course, but it's not the violence that makes the film. It's the exploitation of that violence that makes the film so interesting.

There were a couple of issues I had with the movie. For example, 4 white guys with cameras strapped to their bodies standing in the middle of battles while dodging bullets is certainly unbelievable at times. Yelling "PRESS! PRESS!" doesn't keep you safe in a war-zone. The dialogue is believable for the most part, except when they are joking around in the middle of the battle scenes. I did enjoy Taylor Kitsch's torn and dark portrayal of his character Kevin Carter. Ryan Phillippe does well as prize winning photographer Greg Marinovich, but I thought he was perhaps too good looking to be believable. Compare him to the real Greg Marionovich during the end credits and you'll see what I mean.

That being said, it's an excellent film and Steven Silver certainly has an eye for very personal story telling.

7/10

This film was a nice surprise; I'd not heard of it before I saw it. The set up is a group of intrepid South African photographers who want to go out and document the troubles surrounding the end of apartheid - a story of incomparable significance at that time. These fours guys each have their own unique personality and reactions to the events but share a desire to get the facts on film (and not just report on the contrived political goings on). They risk life and limb in riots and battles that were fought, very graphically here, within the townships - traditionally no go areas for white people.

The fact that the director (Steven Silver) managed to fit into the running time enough detail on each photographer for sufficient back story, plus was able to project the historical concept but tread lightly enough to not offend those that were caught up in it, was impressive. You could imagine, with a sufficient budget, the book morphing into a mini-series. The performances of the actors (in particular the one playing the black South African who'd recently lost his family) were believable, engaging and consistent.

There is included a romantic story - one which is based on real facts and thus one which must be included in any film which has hopes of scoring successfully at the box office. The story was true and therefor wasn't unnecessary, and added to the sympathy for some South Africans who were obviously against the mistreatment of their countrymen.

The overall feel of the film was one which was not overly 'Hollywood', yet still will be accessible to those who prefer western-style production. As a film about photography the images - still and moving - were beautiful and emotionally very captivating.

Anyone who has an interest in photography and/or social history should not miss this.

The "Bang-Bang Club" was a moniker given to a group of primarily four South African photographers who gained notoriety for consistently putting themselves in harm's way to obtain photographs of the "silent war" between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Inkatha that raged from 1990 to 1994, leading up to the first free elections in South Africa that resulted in Nelson Mandela becoming President. The Bang Bang Club is a film version of those years, focusing on the primary members of this group, Greg Marinovich, Kevin Carter, Ken Oosterbroek and Joao Silva. Unfortunately, after watching The Bang Bang Club, the viewer will walk away from the film with a small degree of empathy for some of the people caught in the conflict, but mostly boredom and apathy towards the photographers as The Bang Bang Club fails to tell a compelling and involving story.

As the film opens, we are introduced to Greg (Ryan Phillippe), a freelance photographer who shows up at a skirmish between the ANC and Inkatha where Kevin (Taylor Kitsch), Ken (Frank Rautenbach) and Joao (Neels Van Jaarsveld) are already in the midst of the action. Greg enters a nearby village, considered a foolhardy move by the other photographers, and manages to get some good photos and talks with the Inkatha warriors. Visiting the local newspaper, The Star, Greg impresses the others with this feat of daring and also manages to catch the eye of the photo editor of the paper, Robin (Malin Akerman). Greg starts joining the others as they go out each day, hoping to find action to photograph, constantly embroiling themselves in harrowing circumstances, surrounded by gunfire and potential bodily harm as the two warring sides face off. In the evenings, the members of the "Bang- Bang Club" drown their adrenaline in drink and engage in trysts with women. However, as the conflict carries on over the years, the members of the Club are finding themselves becoming more detached and desensitized to the ongoing stream of violence and this also leads to breakdowns in their relationships with others who aren't there to witness the acts that they face daily.

The Bang Bang Club deals in some heady material: the waning days of apartheid in South Africa, and how one side, the Inkatha, had a different, more complicated point of view of the situation in the country than the simple argument of wrong vs right. When The Bang Bang Club addresses these issues, it manages to provide some stimulating moments. However, the problem is that, for the most part, The Bang Bang Club doesn't direct its attention on those aspects of the story. Instead, it largely focuses on the photographers who make up the Bang Bang Club and that proves to be very shallow, conventional material too often. There is the potential of a terrific movie in the story of these men jumping into the fight to documenting it, but what is on display here falls short of delivering a powerful story.

The Bang Bang Club puts Marinovich and Carter at the forefront of the narrative, with Oosterbroek and Silva largely in the background as supporting characters, but the film fails to make any of these men tremendously interesting. We see them dodging bullets on the battlefield, but there isn't any significant depth to them. They shoot photos, they drink, they sleep with women, and for much of the running time, that is about it. The only romantic relationship that gets any significant screen time is the one between Marinovich and Robin, but it is lacking in any interest or passion. There is no chemistry between the two, they get together because the screenplay wants them to, not because we feel any attraction between the two. An element of the plot that is given some exploration is the idea that these men are losing their humanity to the constant chase of the next great shot, and in one scene, in which Marinovich is called to a man's home after his wife and son have been killed by police officials to document the events does give a strong emotional undercurrent to how Marinovich has put aside his involvement in the events around him to make sure the photos are good. However, another scene in which Carter is confronted by journalists after a photo he took of a vulture stalking a small child outside a feeding station wins a Pulitzer Prize comes across as forced and obvious. Carter tries to answer questions about why he only took the photo and not help the child, and it is a considerable issue to confront, but it is handled in such a manipulative way that the scene loses its power.

Phillipe and Kitsch, in the roles of Marinovich and Carter, are both OK in their parts, but neither are delivering stellar work. Of the two, Kitsch receives a juicier role as Carter, who is the more psychologically unstable of them, and at times manages to tap into some of the mental anguish that Carter experiences, but still, he proves a limited character. Phillipe does a good job of showing us how detached Marinovich is from the basic human emotions being stirred by those around him as he focuses on getting the right framing or lighting, but Marinovich is still often a blank slate. Akerman gets the thankless role of love interest, as the film doesn't give her much depth beyond that. She's easy on the eyes, but there isn't a lot for her to do.

The Bang Bang Club was directed by Steven Silver, who has a background in documentary filmmaking, and it shows at times. Many of the scenes are filmed in a hand-held "you are there" style which can make the audience feel it is part of the proceedings, but style isn't really The Bang Bang Club's problems. It's inability to make these men's situation involving and to not give the greater conflict its due at times is ultimately The Bang Bang Club's undoing.